There are 17 days until my daughter Lovina and Daniel’s wedding day.
Although we are achieving a lot, there is still a lot to do. For my wedding, I have sewn my own dress, a cape and an apron. I have also sewn a dress for my daughter Verena. I still have to sew Lovina’s wedding dress, which keeps getting postponed to another day.
My sisters Verena and Emma, nieces Elizabeth, Emma, and Crystal, and daughters Elizabeth, Susan, and Loretta are all coming over to help out today. I have a list of things to do: Make more noodles for the wedding. I need about 40 pounds, but I made half of them another day.
I also need to make and can some rhubarb juice for future use, I also have some strawberries here that need to be made into jam for the wedding, and when I have time I’ll clean some more windows.
On Saturday, my daughters, Elizabeth and Susan, cleaned the living room and dining room windows and washed the screens. The basement and back porch windows still need cleaning, as well as the bathroom and kitchen windows. We have over 40 windows in our house, so it will take a while to clean them all.
Last night, my daughter Verena’s best friend, Daniel Ray, went with her to the eye doctor to pick up her new glasses. After they returned, Daniel Ray and Verena cleaned half the windows of the pole barn where they will be getting married.
Last Saturday, the men in our family – my husband Joe, my sons Benjamin and Joseph, my sons-in-law Tim, Irvin, and Dustin, and my best friends Daniel, Daniel Ray, and Clint (brothers of Daniel, Dustin, and Grace) – poured 31 yards of concrete into our new pole barn. Trees that had been dead for some time were cut down and the lumber hauled away.
There was also weeding and plowing of the garden, and Grace (a dear friend of Joseph’s) and my daughters helped clean the windows and prepare lunch, which consisted of haystacks along with pumpkin bars, pudding cake, watermelon and ice cream.
For breakfast, we had breakfast burritos. Verena and Lovina had made 50 of them the day before, so we just had to heat them up on Saturday morning. The men wanted to wait to eat them until after the concrete was poured. The trucks arrived at 7 a.m. and they poured them all in a few hours.
A few guys had to finish up outside so the rest of the guys could do other jobs around here. What would we do without our families? We really appreciate them helping us prepare for the wedding.
Yesterday, Daniel had a day off from the factory, so I went to his house with Lovina. While Daniel was mowing the lawn, Lovina was preparing the house. She had already moved a lot of things there.
It’s always sad to see another one of our children’s possessions leave our home, but life goes on and I wish them a very happy and healthy life with God always guiding them.
Daniel and Lovina plan to stay at their lakeside villa for a week after the wedding, so they can relax and enjoy married life once all the work is done.
Tomorrow afternoon we are leaving for Kentucky for the wedding of my nephews, Isaac and Susan. Isaac is the son of Joe’s sister Salome and Morris, and Susan is the daughter of my cousin David. We will be meeting our relatives at the wedding. I have been asked to be a cook, and so have my daughters Elizabeth and Susan, but I cannot attend the wedding.
Sister Emma is also a cook and her sons Joseph and Grace are waiters. A driver will pick us up in a 15-passenger van. Those going are Sisters Verena and Emma, our sons Jacob and Steven, Joe and myself, our sons Benjamin, Kevin, Joseph (and Grace), and our daughter Verena (and Danielle Ray). We will leave late tomorrow afternoon and, Lord willing, head home and return Friday evening.
I left a voicemail for my sister-in-law, Sarah Eileen, letting her know I was worried about her and her family, and was happy to hear back from her – they are doing well as expected.
We miss Albert so much. May God comfort them. Rest in peace dear brother. May God bless you all.
I am so excited to get my hands on your newest cookbook, The Cherished Table. All the hard work my girls and I put into it was worth it! Here is one recipe from the new book:
Barbecue beef sandwich
3 pounds of roast beef
3 bell peppers (seeded and chopped)
2 cups chopped onion
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Place all ingredients in a large dutch oven or roasting pan. Cook at 350oF for 2-3 hours or until beef is tender. (I cooked this in the oven, but you can also cook it on high in a crockpot.) Serve on sandwich buns. It’s like a pulled pork sandwich, but with beef.
Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, an Old Order Amish author, cook, wife, and mother of eight children. Her latest cookbook, “Amish Family Recipes,” is available wherever books are sold. Readers can send a letter to Eicher at Lovina’s Amish Kitchen, PO Box 234, Sturgis, MI 49091 (please include a stamped self-addressed envelope for return mail) or email her at LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org. Your message will be passed on to Eicher and read by her. She does not respond personally to emails.
